water dog
1
4.4
- noun
- /ˈwɔːtər dɔɡ/
:
perro de agua
- Hunting enthusiasts often rely on a water dog to help them retrieve their game from the water.
- a Portuguese water dog
Examples
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All St. John's water dogs come from the island of Newfoundland, which is much more heavily settled.
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... a water dog without the traditional poodle coat in Newfoundland.
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They also probably had some of the poodle-type water dogs on their ships with them.
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What caused the brindling in the early retrievers and the St. John's water dog?
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This suggests that the early St. John's water dog could be a bit sharper than the modern retrievers.
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If you mix all of those breeds together for several generations, while selecting those that were the best net haulers, retrievers, and working dogs, you'd get the St. John's water dog.
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However, one of the earliest strains of retriever descended from the St. John's water dog is the Chesapeake Bay duck dog (Chesapeake Bay retriever).
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The water dog swam gracefully alongside the boat, retrieving the fallen decoys.
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Trained to fetch waterfowl, the water dog eagerly dove into the lake.
Synonyms
32
2.0
A dog with thick, water-resistant fur bred to fetch game for hunters
1
5.3
A large dog with curly fur bred to fetch ducks from water
A medium dog with curly brown fur that swims and fetches birds from water
How Aquatic
Surface Forms
Morphology
water + dog
The meaning 'a dog trained to work in or around water' is directly and transparently derivable from combining 'water' and 'dog'—a common compounding pattern where the first noun specifies the domain or function of the second. This straightforward compositional logic is cross-linguistically common (e.g., 'perro de agua' in Spanish) and would be immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Water dog originally named a dog bred and trained to work in water, often diving in to fetch ducks for a hunter. That's why it now means 'a dog trained to work in or around water'.